Leaving Home
by isabellamaries
Summary: Audrey asks for Chloe's resignation after she put Jack's life at risk, but Bill and Jack don't want to go along with that plan.


"Chloe, if you can't speed things up, I'm going to have to get you fired. When Jack's out there in the field, his safety depends on you." Chloe gave Audrey an irritated look, in which she rolled her eyes, blew her bangs out of her face, and scowled.

"Well, I can't work any faster when you're looking over my shoulder 24/7, and also, I'm not working for DoD." said Chloe.  
"Look," persisted Audrey, "I don't want my father to have you fired, but I will if I have to." She crossed her arms and shifted her weight to her right foot with a sincere and somewhat angry look on her face.

"You know, if you're really concerned about Jack's safety," continued Chloe, "then you should keep me at comm. I don't see Jack reporting to you once he gets out of the field and asks you how you're doing every single time."

Audrey's palm of rage smacked down on Chloe's desk, creating a loud echo in the large room of people. Her thin, dry lips were pressed tightly together. "You're wasting my time," Audrey growled, "and since we obviously cannot work with you, I want your resignation within a week so I can get it to my father. Unless you'd rather me fire you in front of everybody, ruining for reputation forever?"

"You can't do this. I work for CTU, not for you." Chloe shrieked.

"Oh, yes I can. If anything is being thrown off, I have a right to replace the problem."

Chloe's face went blank for a moment, surprised and not aware of the event that just happened. She didn't hate Audrey, but now she disliked her more than ever. Didn't she know how Jack would react to this? Chloe didn't intend on telling Jack anything since she'd rather him not worry about her problems, but it was really getting out of hand for her.

"Fine." Chloe said, "I'll have my resignation ready by the end of the day. Where do I get the form?"  
"Ask Bill for it." Audrey finished, leaving Chloe's station with a smirk crawling on her face.

Chloe wiped her face with her sleeve and got up, not bothering to push her chair in. She, with a covered hand over her mouth, strode to Bill's office with lack of confidence. He was on the phone when Chloe stood there, who was twiddling her thumbs in nervousness.

"I'm gonna have to get back to you. You should receive a call from me in a few minutes." Bill put the phone down and reverted his attention to Chloe.

"Mr. Buchanan, I'd like to get a resignation form so I can… well, I'm going to resign."

Bill's face filled with confusion at Chloe's words. "I can't have you do that, Chloe. You're the best intelligence analyst we have."  
"I'm sorry Mr. Buchanan, but I just need to leave permanently." Chloe responded. She knew better than to tell Bill about Audrey's evil plotting. "I'm sure you can find a better analyst than me, anyway."

Bill swiveled around in his chair, gathered a couple of packets from one of the cabinets in the desk behind him, and handed them to Chloe. "I know you're stubborn; is there any possible way to change your mind?"

"Not really, sir." Chloe took the papers and held them daintily with both of her small hands. "I'm sorry again. I'll just go now."

Without further ado, she went downstairs and back to her station and began to inform Jack of the sudden change in tactics.

"Jack, Audrey's going to take over your field directions from this point on. Good luck." Chloe closed the schematics of Jack's current location off her computer screen and took the bluetooth off her ear, setting it softly on her desk. She took a sharpened pencil in her hand and began to fill out the form that would cause the fall of her career.

* * *

Chloe's sweaty hand stopped writing on the now finished resignation form. She looked around and her eyes caught attention on the oh-so-hard-working Audrey, working passionately at the desk that used to belong to her friend Edgar.

Could things have possibly gone any worse? She'd lost Edgar, her job, and now, she'd never see Jack again. With her heart filling what with seemed like pain, she took the papers in her hands and made her way to the server room.

On the way there, she could see the field team striding through the front door of CTU with guns still in hand and ready to be briefed. In the front stood Jack Bauer, looking his way to Chloe's desk to brief her on everything that's happened. When he realized it was empty, he only made his way to the briefing room instead.

Chloe rushed to catch Jack before he went in. She stood in front of him, blocking his way. "Well, I'm glad you made it back alright." she said.  
"Me too." a smile came to Jack's face. "You're holding up alright?"  
"Yeah. The usual, I guess." There was a pause in which both of them did not speak. In the silence, Chloe reached out and threw her arms around Jack, but with care, and it looked only as a friendly hug on the outside. Jack hugged back, and to Chloe's surprise, without any kind of hesitation. She suddenly let go with an incoherent, "Sorry, that was a bit derogatory."

She left with a hand pressed to her temple, trusting that there was nobody in her way to bump in to. She knew the layout of CTU by heart, and it hurt her to know that she'd never be allowed back there again. Chloe went into the server room and slid down one of the walls, letting all of her sadness pour out of her eyes.

They began to be red, swollen, and the wetness seemed to be never ending. Even when the analyst tried to calm herself, it only reminded her again of what was going to happen, and made her cry even more. It came to the point where she didn't know what to do. She didn't want to tell everyone, for she wasn't fond of goodbyes, but she didn't want Audrey as satisfied as she was for doing something that didn't need to be done.

Chloe sat there shaking for a long while. It seemed like hours, but in reality it was only one. Chloe was not on break, and people began to wonder where she really was. The server room was one of the first places they would have looked, but so far, there was none. Perhaps nobody realized her absence. Even Bill and Jack.

After another long few minutes, Chloe could hear the door creak open slowly. She could barely see, with her eyes blurred up, but she recognized the heavy breathing instantly. It was Jack; nobody else Chloe had ever met breathed as heavy as Jack.

"Chloe?"

"Go away, Jack. I want to be alone." Chloe didn't seem to sound convincing enough. As a matter of fact, it sounded worse. Now, with her shaking voice and revealing it was Chloe crying in the corner, it only had Jack come nearer to her.

"What happened?" She could hear Jack kneeling down so that he was her height in the dark room, and she was very certain that he could hear her sobbing as well.

"Nothing happened. Please, just-"

"You know that I'm not leaving unless you tell me what's going on. Chloe, I'm your friend, and you know that."

"Okay. Fine. You really want to know the truth? I can give you the horrifying truth or the easy-going truth."

"I want the version that has everything I need to know." Jack responded.

"Alright." Chloe took a deep breath, stabilizing her shaking voice. "I was being a bit slow on the field stuff. It must've been my computer, because I haven't gone that slow before. Audrey came over and told me to go faster or she'd fire me. I told her that I couldn't work any faster when she's bothering me, and then… then, she just asked for my resignation or I could just be fired in front of everyone. So I'm going to leave today. I don't know where to go. I'm not going to work at DoD or Homeland, and there's nothing else I can really do. CTU is my _home_, and now it's just like I'm being forced to leave."

"Come here." Jack pulled Chloe close and gave her the comfort she needed, although she started to cry some more. "I'll try and talk her out of it. If not, then I'll make sure that you're not losing your job. You're too valuable to lose, and I already owe you so much. I never did thank you for everything. You're my eyes and ears in the field, and if you're gone, then I can't do my job. Not with someone else. I need you here."

"Thanks, I guess. I feel ambivalent about that. Maybe you should go. I'm acting weird again. I'm sorry, I do that a lot."

Jack let go and got up, caught a last glimpse at the crying woman, and then left the room. Chloe curled up into a ball and waited for a while, calming down in a quicker matter. Her salty tears plastered her face, and then she heard another person come into the room. It wasn't Jack, but it was Bill.

"Jack told me what happened." Bill said, lowering his height so that Chloe did not have to stand, "Is Audrey always having problems with you like this?"

"It depends. Whenever Jack comes near me, she starts snapping at me for no reason." Chloe explained, "I think today that she lost it. I took it for real, though. I have my resignation if she still wants it, seeing as she has more priority than me. Her father's the Secretary of Defense, after all." She slid the forms to Bill, who shook his head and gave them back.

"I can't accept that. I have priority over Audrey, whether her father can intervene or not. Now, whether you still want to turn it in to me is up to you. I'd rather you now. Security is escorting Audrey out now. She was making her way here, and I can only imagine what she might want to do with you." Bill explained, "I'm going to talk to her father. I know he'll understand her behavior."

"Thanks. I can stay?"

Bill nodded, "I'll give you as much time as you need. I know that must have been traumatizing for you."

Chloe put her head back down, staring at the ground. "I know I'm not in the position to ask for favors, but can I see Jack? I really need to talk to him."

"I'll tell him." Bill left Chloe, and in a few minutes, Jack came back into the room. He was no longer wearing field-operation clothing. Chloe stood up instead of being in a puny ball, and stuck her hand out for Jack to shake.

"Thanks. You shouldn't have done that since it was my problem, but you did." she said.

Jack shook Chloe's hand, which he thought to be awkward. Chloe never did this kind of thing. "You're welcome. And also- Audrey's pretty furious at me. I thought she'd never forgive me, so I just ended things. I never thought she'd have a cold heart to do what she did today out of a type of jealousy."

"I thought you were going to get engaged and live in Washington."

"What's done is done," Jack said, sincerely, "That's besides the point. I love someone else, and even if I took them out to dinner a million times, they'd still see me as a friend."

"Why can't you just tell them? It's not that hard. Three words. They'll get it, then. You've done this tons of times, anyway."

"Thanks, Chloe. I'll keep that in mind." Jack nodded. "I suspect it won't be too hard, but I don't know what they'd say." Jack looked off to the side in a curious manner.

"Jack, you're acting weird." Chloe took a step forward with a concerned look on her face, nearly convinced that Jack was going crazy. This wasn't Jack at all. He never conflicted himself in this type of stuff. It was usually him out in the field, yelling, "_Damn it!" _when the time was right, and killing tens and twenties of people.

Jack turned around, bent down a little bit, and pressed his lips to Chloe's. He expected her to back down, pull away, or anything to get free of his grasp. She only ever saw them as friends and was disgusted otherwise. This was not what Jack expected.

Chloe's heart fluttered with excitement and confusion, and as intelligence-hungry as she was, pulled away to ask for an answer. "I don't know what that was even for," she said, "but I liked it."

"I did that because I love you. Three words, Chloe- you even said that yourself. Three words." Jack explained. He noticed Chloe's nervousness, and her pink face was visible in the dark room. He pulled Chloe back into a hug and felt her heartbeat beating quickly.

"Calm down. You don't have to be nervous. It's okay. I'm not breaking the law."

Her heartbeat slowed down somewhat as she buried her face into Jack's chest and wondered how everything could have gone from worse to best. This was certainly not what Audrey intended.

"You're never going to take me out for dinner because you think that I would still think of you as a friend after that. I really don't think that. I think that would be nice. I love you, too. Really." Chloe responded, trying not to sound as awkward as she really was.

Jack rubbed her back slowly by means of solace, and a smile came to his face. "I never thought you'd go along with it."


End file.
